The Welford Road Experience: an away fan's report

By kwin
September 10 2002

Saturday was the first time I had been to watch Quins at Welford Road, and I travelled to Leicester eagerly looking forward to the experience.

I travelled by car and found the ground by the simple method of driving around the inner-ring road until I spotted signs for the Leicester Royal Infirmary which is just opposite. We found a parking space simply enough. While, at £5, it probably wasn't the cheapest one in town....with our soft, rich southerner reputations to live up to, we drove in cheerfully, and slipped the lad in charge an extra fiver to watch the motor for us.

Opposite the car park was our target, the Counting House, a nicely converted C18th building (an old cattle market or similar). It proved an excellent choice, the sun was shining, there were tables outside and plenty of space within. It was about 2.15 and full of Leicester supporters (and the odd Quin) but not at all crowded and we easily found a table just inside the door, right next to PerryGo who was tucking in enthusiastically to the local ethnic food - some sort of vast spiral sausage.

After a swift Pimms, and a lobster sandwich we'd brought with us,  we walked the 5 minutes to the ground, amidst a sea of Leicester fans, and found our allotted entrance, and our seats easily enough. We were in the Next Stand, in block A: right in the corner just behind the try-line. The whole stand seemed to be wooden, are there weren't proper seats, just benches painted up into backside-width spaces.  There were a few other Quins fans near us but mostly we were surrounded by Tigers. There was a pillar in the way. We couldn't see the scoreboard.

Opposite we could see the Crumbie Stand which on the lower tier offered the unusual sight of terracing, with plenty of fans standing for the game and looking like they were having a lot of fun.  The ground is generally a lot tattier than the Stoop with more of an old fashioned feel to it.

But I don't want to give the impression that I didn't like it - far from it! It was excellent. The first thing that hits you when you are used to the Stoop is the sheer size - almost completely enclosed there were 15,000 fans - ie twice as many as we get at the Stoop, and the crowd - with plenty of kids around, just like at home - were buzzing with chatter and enthusiasm.  The MWTM welcomed us, and shortly after that the Quins team ran down the stairs to the pitch to enthusiastic applause....and then the atmosphere really got going. All around us the fans started stamping and chanting...building in volume until the Tigers came on to massive amount of noise.  There's nothing like a covered wooden stand to stamp in (I remember the RFU like that) and welcome the home team got was impressive. It was a few minutes before the noise died down enough to hear the horned helmet, and the Quins' chants.

I'd bought a programme outside the ground (£2.50) but despite the fact we'd announced the team on Thursday, our teamsheet was pretty  inaccurate, and had clearly been made up by guesswork earlier in the week (Caputo as hooker for example). I'm not sure whether the Leicester team was accurate.  Highlight of the programme for me was Deano's programme notes. You may have read some of them in the press but they seemed to me to capture so much of the modern Leicester ethos that the whole piece is worth quoting in full. Here goes:

First of all I'd like to thank you for your continued support. This season we've already sold over 12,000 season tickets and the incredible support that you gave the lads in Cardiff during the Heineken Cup final stirred them on to victory.

In fact, just about the only good thing last Saturday was seeing over 2,000 of our fans at Headingly. I'm just sorry that we couldn't put on a performance worth watching. It's been a difficult week for everyone following that defeat. We never take defeat lightly at Leicester - in fact we always take it very personally indeed. Each player has been taking a long hard look at themselves and some of them are very unhappy with their performance. The phrase we use a lot at Tigers is 'marking our own homework'

This is an honest appraisal - sometime painfully honest - of how we can improve as individuals and as a team. The only players to come out of last week's game with any credit at all, in my opinion, are Ollie Smith and new boy Joseph Naufahu. Every place in the squad has been up for grabs this week and that's the way it always should be. If you try to rest on your laurels you lose -it's as simple as that. People have said that we thought we just had to turn up at Leeds to win - and that hurts, that really hurts.

There was another aspect of last week's game that particularly annoyed me - the reaction of England manager Clive Woodward at the final whistle. He was there summarising for Sky, but at the end of the game our supporters saw him stand up and punch the air in delight as Leeds celebrated their victory. Many people have complained to us that this is inappropriate behaviour for a man in Woodward's position. Although he is a former Leicester play that has done us no favours at all - not that we would expect any. It's a bit like when you were at school and your PE teacher was reffing you against another team. He would be so keen to show that he wasn't biased towards you -he would penalise you at every opportunity so you would have beat both the opposition and the referee to win the game.

Anyway, back to today's game and we welcome back a familiar face to Welford Road, our old friend and team-mate Will Greenwood. He was in superb form for England last season and always rises to the occasion when he plays against us. Let's hop he's not smiling too much when he leaves. Enjoy the game!

There's lots to poke holes at there...and it's quite revealing - but for me the sheer candour of it all just made me like Deano a whole lot more.

The game itself has been covered fully elsewhere, so suffice to say I didn't think it was that bad, even though I seemed to be in the one corner where virtually no action happened.  The crowd around us were exemplary - enthusiastic, friendly to us and when we took our penalties they kept quiet and shushed eachother busily. In the second half, when the play was against them they fell eerily silent (reassuring to know that happens to Tigers as well!) and anyone who was sitting in that corner on Saturday will have heard the noise made by my little boy who's developed an astonishingly loud 'Come On You Quins' for a five-year old.  In the (smelly) gents  I discussed the merits of Austin Healey at Fly-Half with my neighbour. (he was against - ' gives him too much bloody time to think'). 

We went for a beer at half time, and I felt very at home when it took over ten minutes to get served, but our chips at full time were much quicker, and satisfyingly greasy. We headed off shortly after the game. It took about 25 minutes to travel the first half mile until we broke free of the traffic and headed for the motorway.  

All in all an enjoyable experience and for those of you who don't get to many away games I can't recommend the experience enough.....now if we could just manage a win as well!